To keep agents away, RTO premises put under CCTV surveillance

In a bid to get rid of agents from the Regional Transport Office Batamaloo, the authorities have now put the entire RTO Kashmir premises under CCTV surveillance.

According to a transport department official, 26 CCTV cameras have been installed in and around the RTO office located near Tatoo Ground, Batamaloo.

RTO Kashmir, Khursheed Ahmad Shah said the step has been taken after many complaints of presence of agents at the RTO office who demanded money from the applicants. “The presence of these agents had become a growing concern. We hope that with the close surveillance we can make the system hundred percent transparent. We have installed CCTVs at the entrance of the RTO and also inside the rooms where there is public presence,” Shah told Greater Kashmir.

He said the area outside the office building has also been covered by the CCTVs. “The entire footage received from the CCTVs is recorded so that incase of any public complaints we have the option to recheck the footage,” said Shah.

Shah said even tests conducted for driving licenses are being video-recorded to keep a check on appearance of proxy candidates. “We are doing away with the trend of proxy candidates who used to visit our office for registration and documentation work,” said Shah. “We urge that candidates who have driving license or any other documentation related work must visit us in person.”

Shah said in order to make process of licenses issuance more transparent, the issuance of learners licenses across all RTOs in Kashmir has been made fully computerized.

More than 45,000 computerised driving licenses were issued in the recently concluded financial year, while 28,500 new driving licenses were issued in financial year 2016-17 and 43,446 licenses were issued in the financial year 2015-16, as per RTO Kashmir figures.

Communication and Capacity Development Unit (CCDU) on Monday kick-started three-day training programme on water quality monitoring for Public Health Engineering (PHE) and Irrigation and Flood control Department (I&FC) staff here at the Institute of Engineers Jammu and Kashmir Centre, Sonwar Bag